


For Just Another Day

by TwoCrows



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Angst, Dependence - Freeform, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Pre-Canon, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-07 23:36:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17970218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwoCrows/pseuds/TwoCrows
Summary: Back then, before her world was turned upside down, Yuto’s warmth had been so normal, so natural to her. Now, it was the only thing that kept her going.





	For Just Another Day

“These are all that are left?”

Ruri nodded.

“I am sorry, Allen. I wish we could’ve saved more, but…”

She cast down her eyes.

“It’s alright”, he muttered. “There’s nothing else you could’ve done.”

She dug her fingers into her arm to hold back the tears. No matter how often she told herself that she was already doing as much as she could, she felt that with every person that was carded before her eyes a part of her died as well.

This wasn’t fair. Nobody deserved what was happening here.

She glanced back at the six people that had managed to hide from the soldiers until Ruri’s group had found them. They were sitting in the shadow of a crooked building that loomed dreary into the sky. Probably it could collapse any moment but none of them seemed to care. They were too exhausted, their clothes covered with dust. The terror of the past few days was written all over their faces, but despite that, they smiled thankfully at the duellists who handed out some of their food and water.

Ruri followed the web of cracks in the skyscraper with her gaze, looking up at the light of the sun flowing just around the edge of the slanting building.

If she hadn’t been aware of everything that had led to this, she could’ve mistaken the sight for a painting. Two months ago she might even have liked it. But now… she felt sick of seeing her home like this. The bright sunlight that filtered through the shattered glass front felt like some kind of scorn. Like whoever was determining fate was intent on mocking them.

She hated it. She hated looking into the faces of those around her, seeing them grow harder with every day, and she hated knowing it was the same with her. It was weeks since she had last heard even a tiny laugh and when someone smiled it was just one of these fake smiles meant to comfort somebody, to at least ease their pain for a brief while.

How long had it been since she had last experienced true happiness?

She couldn’t remember anymore.

The day of the invasion, the day that had turned her life upside down, was just a little more than one month ago, but it already felt like a lifetime had passed.

Who would’ve expected this? Just a while ago she and her classmates had been wondering about what they were going to do after they finished school. Now… It wasn’t even certain they would be living long enough to see such a day. A day when they wouldn’t need to fight for their lives. A day when survival wasn’t their first priority.

She cast a glance at Yuto who was sitting in front of a young girl, wrapping a bandage around her leg. If Ruri remembered correctly, she had tripped on her way here and scraped he leg at a steel joist that stuck out of a pile of debris. She could see how friendly he talked to the girl, promising her she was safe now and that academia couldn’t touch her anymore.

She knew these lies. She had told them a few times herself already, but with every time she felt more like a hypocrite. Safe places didn’t exist anymore and nobody was able to predict where academia was about to strike next. There were only places that the soldiers might be at and those where they were for sure.

She heard a pebble clattering from the ruins and whipped around, but it was only a crow that had taken to the sky. A wave of shock followed the sudden relief when she noticed her hand was hovering over her duel disk.

So quick. It had only been a split-second, but she had acted without thinking, immediately preparing to fight the possible danger. Was she also starting to be like this, instinctively drawing her disk before even seeing the enemy? Had fighting already become so natural to her?

“Are you alright, Ruri?” Yuto asked, strolling over to her.

She looked into his calm, grey eyes and found that she couldn’t meet his gaze right now. She was so sick of all of this. Sick of the worry that ate her up from inside.

“Yuto”, she mumbled, slumping against him, burying her head into his shoulder.

So many. So many had been caught by academia already. What if he…

Gently, Yuto put his arms around her, stroking over her back. It felt so real. It felt the way he had held her before all of this started, before their home had been turned into a dull field of ruins.

She could almost feel the soft grass beneath her, Yuto’s back next to her, resting against a trunk. She heard his calm, peaceful breath as he enjoyed bathing in the light that filtered through the branches above. She had hummed a little tune and he had listened with that soft, warm smile on his face. The one that he only gave her and nobody else.

She wanted to hold onto this moment, wanted it to linger for a while. Unfortunately the illusion shattered the moment she opened her eyes and once again she was in that cold, hard war zone that had lost every feel of home to her.

“Let’s go”, Yuto muttered, letting his gaze wander over the survivors. “We need to get back.”

After a moment, Ruri nodded and allowed him to lead her away. 

  


* * *

  


_“Okudaira? What… What are you doing up here?”_

_“I am sorry, Kurosaki, but I cannot endure living like this anymore. With every day we hide and try to evade academia. But they never stop hunting us.”_

_“Yes. I… wish we could do more than rescue those who managed to survive. But that’s all we can do.”_

_“You know… Every day I listen to Kaito. I hear whom we have lost that day and I just feel relief that I am not among that list yet.”_

_“What do you–”_

_“I don’t have the strength of you or your brother. I don’t feel anger at academia. When I see one of their soldiers, my entire body starts to tremble and all I want to do is run away and find some hole I can hide in. But it is only a question of time until they get me as well.”_

_“Okudaira… All of us are afraid. You’re not alone. Sometimes I am as scared as you are.”_

_“I’m sorry… Kurosaki. I don’t want to wait ‘til academia finds me and turns me into a card.”_

_“What are you… No! No, don’t do that! Okudaira! Okudaira!”_

  
  


She awoke with a start.

Her panicking heart leaped in her chest.

She looked at Shun who was sleeping next to her. Even while asleep, his face didn’t lose its hardness. Still, it made her calm down a little.

She turned around to where Yuto was lying. Only that his mat was empty.

Suddenly she felt cold and it had nothing to do with the temperature. She curled up and tried not to think about what had happened. She knew the fear. She knew how it felt to face an academia soldier. Actually she wanted to run as well, but her mind told her that wasn’t going to save her. Only those who stayed and fought had a chance to survive.

And yet, she couldn’t shake this horrible feeling. This feeling of guilt that was tearing her up.

Wrapped in her thin blanked, she stepped out into the cold night. Just like she had expected, she found Yuto on the watcher’s spot, a solitary figure in his black coat, silently looming against the dark sky.

“Just returned from a rescue mission and you’re already taking the night watch?” she asked. “Don’t overwork yourself, Yuto.”

He moved over a little and she sat down beside him.

“And what about you? Couldn’t sleep?”

She nodded.

“The nightmare again?” he asked considerate.

She cast down her eyes and pulled the blanket tighter around her.

“Sometimes I feel the worst thing academia does is not what they do to those who get carded, but to those who remain.”

She shivered.

“It’s not that I knew him very well”, she continued. “But he was part of our group. And to think that he would…”

She tried to block out the memory of his head when she had stared down from where he had jumped. Without a word, Yuto gazed at her, his grey eyes warm with sympathy. There was nothing he could say to comfort her without repeating the same lines they were telling everyone they managed to find. She knew that and still, she wished he would say something, just to hear the sound of his soft voice.

“I am not sure how long I can go on like this”, she muttered.

Every day she saw how everyone was suffering. Every day, _she_ was suffering. Whenever she spotted a card among the ruins, she gazed at it in horror, scared to find Shun’s or Yuto’s face on it one day.

This fear… It was already eating her up.

“Don’t say that, Ruri”, Yuto muttered, reaching for her hand. It felt like an anchor, so safe and reliable. “If there is an end to this war, we are going to see it. Together.”

Ruri smiled sadly as her fingers entwined with his. She wished she could believe in his words, but… she had seen too many vanish in the violet light. Still, she enjoyed the warmth that flowed from his hand into hers.

After a while, she snuggled against him, resting her head on his shoulder. Yuto tensed up a little, but then he relaxed again.

“For just another day… hold my hand like this, Yuto”, she whispered.

The gentle squeeze of his fingers was everything she had needed. 


End file.
